San Jose State’s MOOC missteps easy to see

By eCampus News staff and wire reports

July 30th, 2013

As most people in ed-tech circles have heard by now, a much-touted MOOC experiment has ended in embarrassment, Diverse reports. In January, Udacity, a for-profit founded by Google and Stanford employee Sebastian Thrun to create customized online college-level video-based courses, announced that it would partner with San Jose State University to offer online versions of three SJSU courses. This was a small pilot: The three courses, in remedial and entry-level math and statistics, would be open to just 100 students each, half already enrolled at SJSU and half coming from other nearby community colleges and charter schools, for college credit at a cost of $150. Students would be able to seek extra help online from live tutors as well as from teachers or professors at their home institutions. Udacity and San Jose State had reason to expect some good outcomes from this approach.